Free Expression

BISG to present first annual industry awards; More students seek illegal alternatives to textbooks; Media Coalition concludes gun violence and media connection flawed; Frommer’s to start releasing print titles; IPG and Trafalgar Square acquire new clients; 2014 BEA Global Market Forum to focus on books in translation; NCAC to host free speech benefit

The Campaign for Reader Privacy — a joint initiative of ABA, ALA, AAP, and PEN American Center — called on Congress this week to pass legislation to restore privacy protections for bookstore and library records that were stripped by the Patriot Act as a first step toward reining in what the group calls “runaway surveillance programs.”

Chris Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, discusses the debate on government surveillance and reformation of the Patriot Act –– especially as it pertains to booksellers.

School ban on Perks of Being a Wallflower overturned; Where’s Waldo? hits a milestone; U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey appointed to second term

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression has joined the ACLU, the American Library Association, more than 80 civil liberties, government reform, and digital advocacy groups, and several companies in protesting the National Security Agency’s surveillance of the telephone records and Internet activity of American citizens.

A week after Colorado booksellers challenged a law restricting the display of magazines about marijuana, the State of Colorado agreed not to enforce the law. Lawyers for the state acknowledged that the law, which would have forced retailers to display any magazine that focuses on marijuana or marijuana businesses behind the counter, was unconstitutional.

Income from the online and live auctions of children’s book art held in conjunction with this year’s BEA increased by 50 percent over the previous year’s auction results. Proceeds from the auctions support ABFFE’s defense of the free speech rights of young readers.

Tattered Cover Book Store, Boulder Book Store, ABFFE, MPIBA, and several newsstands filed suit on Monday to block enforcement of a Colorado law that violates the First Amendment rights of retailers to display magazines that focus on marijuana and of customers to browse those publications.

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression has received an initial royalty check from sales of the Coffee House Press title Read This! Handpicked Favorites From America’s Indie Bookstores, compiled and edited by Micawber’s Books owner Hans Weyandt.

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression has released several videos of bestselling authors Sherman Alexie and Laurie Halse Anderson discussing how to fight the censorship of young adult books.

BookStats annual survey results announced; BEA author events to be streamed live; “Buzz Books 2013: Fall/Winter” released; Prospective booksellers learn the ropes at Paz workshop; Midwest Booksellers Choice Awards finalists announced; Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl challenged at Michigan school; Winner of Hugh Hefner First Amendment Award announced; Bookmasters to distribute TGS International

A Glen Ellyn, Illinois, school district has banned Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower from eighth grade classrooms, but parents, teachers, students, and the Kids’ Right to Read Project are asking the district to reconsider its decision.

Booksellers, publishers, authors, and anyone else who loves children’s book art or feels strongly about kids’ right to read should be sure to have the Annual Children’s Book Art Silent Auction and Reception on their BEA calendars. For book industry professionals who can’t make it to the auction, those who just want to double their opportunity to bid on great art, and members of the public, ABFFE has added an online auction component.

With double the number of works of art compared to last year, a special tribute to Maurice Sendak, and hosts Jack Gantos and Lauren Myracle, the May 29 Children’s Book Art Silent Auction & Reception at BEA is shaping up to be a stellar event. Thanks to a donation from the Estate of Maurice Sendak, auction participants will be able to bid on a sketch of Little Bear on tracing paper signed by the beloved author and illustrator.

A special section of this year’s Children’s Book Art Silent Auction at BEA will honor the late Maurice Sendak, the beloved author and illustrator of classic children’s titles and a passionate defender of free speech. A number of illustrators will be creating special artworks commemorating Sendak that will be auctioned off at the event.